Help with WinPic please.

[ljcox]

I want to programme the 16F170 but it is not listed in WinPic.

I read the readme_dev.txt in the WinPic devices folder & copied PIC16F1708.dev & PIC16F1708.PIC files into it as suggested.
But when I opened WinPic it is still not listed.

I must be missing something. Does anyone know what I'm missing? Any advice will be appreciated.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

You're missing using a 'proper' programmer - get yourself a PICKIT 3 or 4, they are cheap enough now (and you can get even cheaper PK3 clones from China).

As someone who wrote PIC Programming software I can tell you that the time for using third party programmers has LONG gone.

 

[ljcox]

Thanks Nigel for the reply. I bought a PICKIT3 some time ago. But when I tested it by programming a 12F675, it destroyed the 675.

Aftyer attemping to insert the programme in to the PIC, both the PGC & PGD i/o were permanently high & the programme did not work. I assume that the PICKit 3 applied too high a voltage to them. I'm intending to insert Schokty diodes to protect the internal diodes on these i/o. All I want to do is to programme a 16F1708. The WinPIc does all of the other PICs that I'm ever expecting to use - hence my attempts to use WinPic.

I also assume that PICKit 3 adjusts the Vpp to what ever voltage the PIC needs. As you know, the 16F84 & a few others need 13 Volt. Some need 11 Volt & the 16F1708 needs 9 Volt. But I have not been able to confirm that. Do you know?

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

If you blew a PIC up, then you wired something seriously wrongly - PIC's are very hardy devices, and you shouldn't be able to damage one from a correctly connected PK3.

As for voltages, there are various different ones, and the PK3/4 will select the correct one - however, I don't think it's normally very critical, and most non-Microchip programmers usually apply 13V for all devices. The high voltage isn't used for programming, it's used to switch the chip internally to programming mode without wasting another I/O pin (as LVP does).

I stopped all development on WinPicProg years ago now, the vast array of new PIC's appearing meant it was difficult to keep up with them, and the PK2 was a better all round alternative - not to mention the lack of parallel ports on any remotely new PC.

 

[JonSea]

The PICkit 2 I know is very robust and takes good care of itself if there's too much current draw. It just shuts down the power and won't play anymore until it's unplugged from power and the GUI is restarted. I have never had it do damage to a properly connected micro.

One interesting thing I've from with the somewhat odd arrangement of the 6 pins on the ICSP connector is that the connected micro is pretty tolerant of a reversed ICSP connector. I've had a few "oh crap" moments when I realized I had connected a non-keyed 6 pin ICSP cable the wrong way around. When it's connected the right way, no damage done and everything is happy.

When using ICSP, you do need to be careful what you connect to the ICSP clock and data pins. The programmer must be able to change the states on those pins. Too large a load and it won't be able to do so.

 

[Beau Schwabe]

Watch out when ordering stuff from China right now... I have ben hit with Tariff issues as many other companies in the US as well have

 

[Pommie]

No problems here in Australia with tariffs.

Mike.

 

[JonSea]

I haven't had any trouble in the US with $100+ Ebay orders, other than one shipment being "recalled" by customs from my local post office. When it finally did arrive a week and a half later, there was no evidence that the package had been opened or even looked at. This shipment did include a PICkit 2 clone costing around 8 bucks.

 

[ljcox]

Thanks for the replies. I already have a PK3.

Nigel, There is no problem with my programmer hardware. Before I used PK3, I checked the programmer for continuity & shorts.

Today, following your comments, I used WinPic to do more testing.
As you know. it has a good feature that allows testing hardware programmers - you can set Vpp, PGD & PGC and measure the result with a DMM.

So I set Vpp and checked that the 13 Volt did not appear on any other points, i.e. PGC & PGD.
No problems showed up. So I stand by my previous claim - that the PIC was damaged by PK3.

Tomorrow, I'll connect my CRO to PGC & PGD and then use PK3 to programme a PIC (without the PIC installed in the programmer).
I should see the clock & data signals while PK3 attempts to do the programming.

I could not see an equivalent test feature in PK3 to the hardware test feature in WinPic.
It would be nice to be able to set the Vpp, PDC & PGD lines for checking the voltages output by PK3.

Does anyone know if there is such a feature?

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

I could not see an equivalent test feature in PK3 to the hardware test feature in WinPic.
It would be nice to be able to set the Vpp, PDC & PGD lines for checking the voltages output by PK3.

Does anyone know if there is such a feature?

Not as far as I know, and as it's essentially 'part of MPLAB(X)' it's not really needed - I added manual toggling of the pins to WinPicProg a LONG time ago, and as far as I'm aware was the first program to support that?. For parallel port (and serial 'port') programmers it's a handy facility to have, but not really for a USB based one with on-board processor. I only ever supported parallel port programmers, simply because of the JDM programmer, I purposely never added serial port capability(which would have been trivial to do) because of the unreliable nature of the JDM.

 

[Mickster]

I bought a PICKIT3 some time ago. But when I tested it by programming a 12F675, it destroyed the 675.

Just a thought, did you try and regenerate the OSCCAL value at 0x3FF, and is MCLR an input or is it left as reset?
Pickit2 standalone program has an OSCCAL regeneration function, so I would hope they retained it in the Pickit 3 standalone program.

 

[Pommie]

I have heard of (but not experienced) pics being damaged by simple reset circuitry. If a simple RC reset is implemented then Vpp can appear on Vcc during in circuit programming. Microchip recommend a diode in series with the resistor to prevent this.

Mike.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

I have heard of (but not experienced) pics being damaged by simple reset circuitry. If a simple RC reset is implemented then Vpp can appear on Vcc during in circuit programming. Microchip recommend a diode in series with the resistor to prevent this.

As far as I'm aware they used to recommend that decades ago?, but for a LONG time now the recommendation has just been a simple 10K pullup resistor on the MCLR pin.